[..] but my mother knew the witch Ayana, who heard from the spirits of a mystic land where everybody was healthy. Blessed by the gifts of speed and strength. That led my family here, where we lived amongst those people.

Mystic Falls is a picturesque town located in central Virginia with a population of 6,923 people. Aside from the town's foundation in 1860 (in the series' timeline) by the Founding Families, the town also has a long history of vampires, witches and werewolves, causing Mystic Falls to be an uncanny village with a dark secret. Many famous historical occurrences have taken place in Mystic Falls.

Mystic Falls, which was once a hotbed of supernatural events, became one of the few places (if not the only one) in the world where non-traditional magic had no effect (although all magic, including traditional magic, was ineffective); therefore, the majority of supernatural species, and magical artifacts had no effect in the town. As a consequence of the spell that the Travelers cast to undo non-traditional magic within the town borders, a vampire or a hybrid who entered Mystic Falls would have the magic that keeps them vampires slowly stripped away until they finally reverted to the stage in which they existed before being reawakened as a vampire-- a dead body. They would then die the exact same way they died before reawakening in transition to become a vampire (e.g. drowning, snapped neck, slit throat, etc.) and will stay dead due to the lack of magic reanimating their corpses.

The magical energy that empowered the Travelers' anti-magic barrier spell, was absorbed by Malachai Parker. As a result, magic can once again exist in Mystic Falls.

Contents

The Founder's Council

The Founders Council is an association of the Founding Families, townspeople who are descended from the original settlers of Mystic Falls, as well as various municipal officials. Outwardly, it appears to be a civic organization dedicated to celebrating local history. Secretly, the council's mission is to protect the town from supernatural beings, especially vampires. Journals written by members of the Founding Families describing vampires and how to catch and kill them are passed down through subsequent generations.

Members

As of Season Five, all supernatural beings cannot cross the border into Mystic Falls. But, later in Season Six, the Travelers' anti-magic barrier spell was absorbed by Kai, allowing all the supernatural beings to cross the Mystic Falls border again.

However, the Travelers' spell to purge Mystic Falls of "impure" magic may have disempowered the Expression Triangle, rendering it inaccessible to practitioners of Expression.

Mystic Falls will remain a vampire free town during Season Six.[1] Though, it has been hinted at by Caroline Dries in a TV Guide interview that Elena, Caroline & Stefan will regain access to the town at some point in Season 6, which mean for only one season will Mystic Falls will be a magic-free zone.

As of Home, Mystic Falls is now the reverse of Storybrooke in Once Upon a Time, where magic only operates from within the town's borders.

In I'll Remember Caroline learns from her mother Liz that vampires have been lurking around the outside of the anti-magic "bubble" that surrounds Mystic Falls.

It's shown in Welcome to Paradise that a vampire's compulsion is considered magic, and that a compelled human who enters the borders of the anti-magic spell will have their compulsion stripped away, as evidenced when a girl that Caroline compelled went into town, where the compulsion lifted, and she was able to decide not to do what she was told. This suggests that anyone living in Mystic Falls who has been compelled to forget that they were victim or witness to a vampire attack at some point in time will remember, which could threaten the vampires' identities.

The anti-magic boundary spell created by The Travelers has been removed by Kai, allowing all magic to be present in Mystic Falls once more.